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Victory! Carleton entered four teams in this first tournament hosted by Grinnell, using the same eligibility rules as our own CUT. The 18-team tournament was won by Carleton Tofu (Ezra Lyon and Jack Rousseau), who went 11-0. The final versus the Univ. of St. Thomas, also undefeated to that point, was an exciting nip and tuck affair coming down to a clutch situation where with two questions left to play Carleton was trailing and needed to get both tossups -- which Jack did (dwarves and Bob Uecker), and with the bonus points Tofu pulled out a 305-300 win for the championship. This more than made up for our undefeated duo's inability, earlier in the final match, to recognize that the first published novel of Charlotte Bronte, in which a governess marries her beloved, would be "Jane Eyre" rather than "Emma". ("Boys -- sheesh" was the head-shaking sentiment heard from women in the audience, while Eric just covered his face with his hands.) All four of the Carleton teams did well, posting combined records of 23-9 entering playoffs. Winding up at 6-4 was Carleton Tofu (Neal Schuster, Sarah Vigeland), and also Carleton Tu Fu (an all-frosh team of Adam Carr, Patrick Hope, George Kachergis, Colin McLain, and John Morse). Carleton Tatu (Kevin Clair playing solo) broke even at 5-5. Neal won a book award for finishing second in the tournament in individual scoring, and Ezra tied for third. Eric enjoyed traveling with the frosh, whose idea of what makes for a good car ride mirrored his own: reading practice packets most of the way, both directions. The freshmen had an impressive first tournament, earning big wins over some tough opponents, and giving notice that they've got both talent and a lot of potential.
Summary by Ezra: Eight Carleton players drove down to Iowa City for the fourth This Tournament Goes to 11. In a field of only six schools, Neal, Ezra, Kevin, Jack, Simone Kahmeyer, Courtney Colby, Keith Purrington and Mike Austin finished a respectable second behind a strong University of Illinois team. The tournament was heavy on trash--Jack dominated the Harry Potter packet and Keith showed off his amazing Star Wars knowledge. Our other endeavors were not so successful. Our couples (Keith and Simone, Courtney and Neal) lost the Love round and our women were defeated on the All Things Female packet. Decent packets included Fictional Places, Non-classical Mythology, an 80s audio packet and, of course, Kevin and Jack's Pop Music packet. In the lighting (knockout) individual competition Ezra finished 3rd, narrowly beating Illinois' Hairboy to escape elimination in the final round. Kevin was 5th in overall scoring with 37.5 points per game. Friday night we stayed next to the Grinnell team and played Diplomacy late into the night with Ezra's brother Avram, the other Avram from Grinnell, and Brad Houston.
We WON Division II, with Ezra and Jack taking their second title of the season as a two-person team. Playing as Carleton "The Squirrel of Strife," Jack-'n'-Ezra went 8-3 in the initial round robin, best in Division II and tied for third among all teams. (They were 1-1 in games decided by 10 points or less.) They then clinched the title in a playoff round by defeating a Chicago team 200-165, a game in which they combined seven tossups by Ezra with five by Jack; nicely done! Our all-frosh entry of Adam, John, Patrick, and (in his intercollegiate debut) Max Parrish, playing as Carleton "Cornish Pixies," also did quite well, finishing third in Division II. The frosh went 7-4 in the overall round robin, including a tight 50-point loss to "The Squirrel of Strife." They then dropped a close tiebreaker game to Chicago, 200-165, for the right to face the other Carleton team for the Div. II title. Individually, we were nicely balanced, everyone contributing 15 ppg. or better. Ezra led the entire tournament in scoring (nearly 74 ppg).
This contest added another two trophies (2nd place overall and 2nd place novice division) to the team hoard in Eric's office. Including coach, twelve from our current team went down to Ames for this, divided among four teams. (Thanks to Ezra for loaning his car even though not going himself!) The results were gratifying: in the 16-team field, in which non-student players were welcome, all four of our teams made the top-eight playoff bracket. Eric, playing with former Carleton standout Emily Pike as the team dubbed "Little Taipei," used a 5-point win over the other "Masters" team in the field, former Iowa Staters Hentzel, Kubicek, and Mayfield, to reach the championship final with a perfect 11-0 record, but couldn't seal the deal by beating that team a second time, losing 300-250, and 260-230 to place 2nd. Our other trophy, for 2nd-place in the novice division, was captured by Carleton Hogan Brothers (Patrick, John, Colin, and George), who finished 7th overall. Carleton Maple Syrup Shooters (Neal, Kevin, and Courtney) placed 6th overall, and Carleton Las Delicias (Max, Jack, Adam, and Sarah, were 8th overall and 3rd in the novice division, after winning a playoff to break a tie for entry into the top division.
Seven of us stayed over from the Nov. 8 tournament in order to partake of the TRASH regionals the following day. Not unexpectedly, our successes in this all-pop culture format were fewer. Eric and Emily, riding the coattails of teammates Chad Kubicek and Chris Mayfield, eeked out a 7-4 record to tie for 4th place in a 12-team field. Right behind at 6-5 (tied for 6th) were Kevin and Jack, teamed with free-agent Gail Celio -- the match between these two teams came down to a final decisive tossup, so one question was the only difference between their records and placement. The frosh squad of Colin, Patrick, John, and George finished 3-8. And two additional Carleton students, Andy Nichols and Amy Rosenblatt, came down on their own to play as a two-person team ("Jumpin' Jack Trash"); they went winless, but Andy was 8th in the tournament in individual scoring. Reigning as the top Carleton trashmaster, though, is Kevin, the tournament's #6 individual scorer.
Report by Sarah H.: Ezra, Kevin, Jack, and Sarah Horowitz (now returned from a term in Europe) made the long drive to Ann Arbor, Michigan for this 28 team tournament, complete with a view of the original Borders. Competing in the Maize bracket, the team finished third in that half of the field with a record of 10 and 3. With playoffs limited to the top two from each division, that was all she wrote. Ezra won a prize for being tenth in individual scoring. Overall, the team was happy with their results, and two of their losses came to the first and second place teams Chicago A and Rochester A. They do regret their third loss, to Texas A&M, who won on the strength of correctly identifying the FDA as the administration that regulates food and drugs, and receiving a Jane Austen bonus custom made for Sarah. Of course, no tournament would be complete without a few highway incidents, which were highly prevalent in Wisconsin. On the way there, the car hit a patch of ice and spun out several times, and then proceeded to crawl the five miles to the Illinois border, where they have apparently heard of salt trucks. On the way back, one of the tires on the car blew out, also in Wisconsin, and resulted in a search for a Wal-Mart and new tire. But fortunately no one was hurt in either event, and the team agreed that overall the weekend had been very enjoyable.
We WON! On a weekend when the rest of us stayed in Northfield to host our first-ever high school tournament (the "SNO-CAT," with 20 teams, won by Robbinsdale Armstrong with a finals victory over Wayzata), four Carls were given leave to drive south to this tournament in Kirksville, Missouri. Kevin reports: "We (being Ezra, Kevin, Max, and John) made the seven-hour trek down to Truman State for this eight-team tournament, and the Carleton team emerged on top of the field! We went 6-1 in the first round robin, losing only to a strong Iowa State team, before going 3-0 in the elimination round (including two more wins over Iowa State). In the final game against Iowa State, the lead traded back and forth between the two teams several times until the score was tied at 240 with two tossups remaining. We picked up tossup 21 only to get nothing on the bonus; despite a neg on the next question, it ultimately went unanswered, giving Carleton a five-point win for the championship. Ezra averaged 66 points per game to lead all scorers not playing by themselves. After dinner with the Grinnell team at a Mexican restaurant we made the trip back to Northfield, reading questions most of the way."
Lots of victory! In addition to hosting, Carleton entered one Division 1 and one Division 2 team in NAQT's North Central SCT, and each team won their respective title, earning us two automatic invitations to the NAQT national championships in April. Carleton's Div. 1 team played Keith, Kyle, and Sarah H. for all 16 rounds, playing with Ezra for the first 10 and Kevin for the last 6, after Ezra needed to leave for the airport. This team finished regular play 13-2, and tied with Iowa State for the top spot. This led to a championship final, for which Carleton simply caught fire, winning 365-130. In Div. 2, Adam, Jack, Joseph Graly, and Patrick went 13-1, to win by a two-game margin over a strong Univ. of St. Thomas team. Patrick in Div. 2, and the combination of Ezra-then-Kevin in Div. 1, were each the #2 individual scorers in their respective divisions.
Carleton A (Ezra, Kevin, Jack) were 5-5 in the preliminary round-robin, while Carleton B (Adam, John , Max, Patrick) were 3-7, winning the hard-fought two-team "division 2" title. There were playoffs too, but unless one of the participants contributes a report going beyond what was posted by the hosts, their results remain mysterious.
Playing as Carleton Harpo, our all-frosh team of Adam, John, Max, and Pat lost their opening round match, versus St. Thomas's Paul Drube, 370-80. After which they picked themselves up off the floor, dusted themselves off, and went undefeated the rest of the day (15-1) to WIN the championship at our own annual tournament by a three game margin over any other team. This included a rematch with the St. Thomas player who had drubbed them in the first round, which the frosh this time won by 210 points. 14 of their 15 wins were by margins of greater than 100 points, the only exception being their match with Carleton Zeppo (Kyle and Sarah H.) which they won by 80. Carleton Gummo (Ezra Lyon) went undefeated in a divisional round robin, and placed 4th overall in the 27-team field, 12-5 for the day. (12-3 until his last two games, which he probably could have done without: losing 600-85 (!) to the Carleton frosh, and then 365-85 in the third-place tiebreaker game to St. Thomas.) Carleton placed five teams in the final top ten. Joining Harpo and Gummo were Carleton Groucho (Kevin), tied for 6th -- after also having gone undefeated in his divisional round robin -- Carleton Zeppo, 9th, and a joint Carleton/UM-Morris team of Keith combining (as a no-notice fill-in for an expected team that had to cancel late) with Gail Marquis of Minnesota-Morris to finish 10th. Carleton Chico (Jack and Sarah V.) came out on the short end of a multi-team divisional round robin tiebreaker to be placed in the bottom flight for their secondary round robin despite a respectable 4-4 record, meaning that they then could finish no higher than 19th -- but that they did, rolling undefeated through that flight, making them 12-4 for the day. Very satisfactory results for all six teams, sort of highlighting our current team strength and depth, especially in all-undergraduate competition.
This fell during our spring break, so participation by some of our players and alumni in this tournament open to anyone was on their own initiative. Kevin and Ezra teamed with Ezra's brother Avram and father Maury (Carleton Class of '74) . . . and WON the tournament! They went 6-2 in preliminary play, behind a 7-1 Iowa State team, then won two rounds of single-elim playoffs, defeating Iowa State in the final in a match decided only by the last tossup. For their victory they received lovely frog-themed lawn ornaments. A Carleton alumni crew of Chris Idemmili, Courtney Colby, Mike Olson, Neal Schuster, and Bryan Gast also went 6-2 in preliminary play to also make the four-team playoffs. Courtney received the tournament's Title IX prize (a female action figure from the local Big Lots) as the top-scoring female player.
In Division I, Kevin, Ezra, Kyle, Keith, and Sarah H. won 7 and lost 6, in such sequence as to finish tied with Virginia for 5th in the country among undergrad-only teams, and tied for 17th (with Virginia and Chicago) in the overall competition. The key match was with Iowa State, who we've been playing close matches with again and again all year long -- this one went down to the final tossup, just like our championship matches with them earlier in the year at Truman State and Iowa, both of which Carleton won. This time it went the other way, and was largely the difference between ISU's finishing 3rd and getting a large trophy, and Carleton's tie for 5th. Such is quizbowl! Kevin led the team in scoring for this one. In Division II, Patrick, Jack, Joseph, Adam, and Max went 10-3 and finished 4th -- which was pretty great, except that it might so easily have been even better. (Again, such is quizbowl.) They put up the second-highest scoring average of all Div. II teams, and in fact soundly beat two of the three teams eventually placing ahead of them, #2 Illinois and #3 Harvard, and lost to #1 UCLA only on the final tossup question, but they also took two close losses to lower-placing teams, the University of St. Thomas and University of Maryland. Patrick Hope received an individual award as a tournament all-star, the fourth-highest individual scorer in Division II. The players were joined on the trip to St. Louis by Eric, Courtney, and team alumnus Shane Ewert '02, on a visit home from England. Many thanks to the Lyon family for putting hordes of us up overnight in Galesburg on both ends of the trip.
At a tournament open to anyone wanting to play, we brought three teams with Carleton connections: one all-student one, one combining Carleton team alumni and a current student, and one including our coach. The student team of Ezra, Kevin, Jack, and John tied for 2nd place with the pairing of Eric with Gail Celio, each team finishing 8-3. The students split with tournament champion Illinois (9-2), but lost twice to Eric/Gail, who themselves lost twice to Illinois and once to St. Thomas. In 5th place, at 7-4, was a team of Max and three alumni: Courtney Colby, Chris Idemmili, and Mike Olson. This team gave Illinois their other loss of the day. Eric was presented with an Iowa Hawkeyes cowbell for leading the tournament in scoring. All ten of us then enjoyed dinner at the Peking Buffet, after which half went home and the rest stuck around for the next day's trash. In some four-handed poker Saturday night, Jack was the big winner.
The day after the Moon Pie Mirror, a mostly Carleton team of Kevin, Jack, John, and Gail Celio stayed to play a ten-round trash tournament. (Eric stayed to moderate.) Very different sort of questions, but very similar results to the day before: 2nd place (7-3), and a win included over the first place team, this time an Iowa combination that otherwise never lost. In a well-balanced attack, Kevin, Gail, and Jack finished 4th-5th-6th in individual scoring for the tournament, picking up some suitably trashy video/DVD gifts for their prowess. To Little Taipei in Ames for Sunday dinner on the way back. With this weekend's two tournaments, seniors Ezra and Kevin closed out stellar Carleton quizbowl careers in style and with typical success.
